Robin Ford, 2017

Frère Jacques

Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines
Ding, dang, dong; ding, dang, dong

Turbo-diesel 

Turbo-diesel, turbo-diesel
Burn less fuel, burn less fuel
High compression ratio, high compression ratio
Fill, squash, squirt; bang, push, blow

 

On a graph of torque versus engine rpm, contours of specific fuel consumption (grams per kilowatt-hour) can be overlaid to indicate efficiency; the turbo diesel generally uses less fuel.

Glossary

High compression ratio    Diesel engines need a high compression ratio in order to work at all; this is also one reason for a diesel’s increased efficiency over a spark-ignition (petrol) engine.

Fill, squash, squirt; bang, push, blow    The classic jingle for a four-stroke engine is “suck, squash, bang, blow”: my six-phase version for a turbo diesel is more explicit – ‘suck’ is hardly right when the turbo is pushing the air into the cylinder, so ‘fill’ it is; ‘squash’ is ok (compression); ‘squirt’ is for fuel injection; ‘bang’ is for rapid burning; ‘push’ is what the hot gasses do to produce the power; ‘blow’ is exhaust.